The Arts

High marks for Spike Lee film probing Klan

By Sheldon Foster Merel ENCINITAS, California — BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee ‘s recently released film, covers  the early years  of the Black Power Movement in the 1970s , and  most importantly exposes  the Klu KLux Klan’s  insidious  agenda  of racism,  and Anti-Semitism in America. BlacKkKlansman is  based  on the life of  Ron Stallworth who served as  […]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Holocaust survivor repays a debt in ‘The Last Suit’

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Holocaust survivor Abraham Bursztein (Miguel Angel Sola), the protagonist in the Spanish language, English-subtitled film The Last Suit, has a promise to keep before his children in Argentina move him out of his house and pack him off to a retirement home. Angry at their insistence that he

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Donald H. Harrison, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Talented artist Kusama overcomes prejudice

“Not only was she a woman, but she was Japanese” – Glenn Scott Wright, director, Victoria Miro Gallery By Heather Z. Rothstain LOS ANGELES – I wasn’t interested in her work, then I watched this documentary.  Move over Warhol, stand back Claes Oldenburg, Kusama’s time is now! Kusama Infinity – The Life and Art of

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International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

1985 novel by Simone Signoret still captivates

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The name of the author, the actress Simone Signoret, caught my eye and I bought Adieu Volodia for 50 cents (521 pages, hardback) last summer while browsing the stalls at a village brocante, a kind of flea-market in rural France where the locals bring out the items they wish

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

If you’re an SNL fan, you’ll love ‘Love Gilda’

Love, Gilda, a CNN documentary by Lisa D’Appolito; to open Friday, September 21, at the Landmark Theatre in San Diego’s Kensington neighborhood. By Donald H. Harrison   SAN DIEGO – While growing up, Gilda Radner was teased unmercifully about being overweight.  Her mother even put her on diet pills when she 10 years old.  Knowing

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Obituaries & memorials, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Home again in Israel

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — As ever, returning to Israel after two months of absence is something of a culture shock, particularly when it comes to driving a car. One is reminded with alarm that rules are no longer rules, the word ‘courtesy’ does not exist in the Hebrew language, and the overall feeling

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

Israel in global Jewish tradition and thought

Coming Home: Living in the Land of Israel in Jewish Tradition and Thought by Rabbi Dov Lipman, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem, © 2018, ISBN 978-9652299369, p. 141, $14.95. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Dov Lipman, author of Coming Home, has selected a propitious time for publishing a book about the historical and emotional ties

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Science v. Religion, a.k.a Feynman v. Wouk

By Stanley Tiger SAN DIEGO — The following is a touching story about two great minds – one, a Jewish atheist respectfully confronting a religious Jew. Their reflections are in keeping with the solemnity of Rosh Hashana. The old friends and collaborators unexpectedly met while in Washington, D.C.. Nobel physicist, Richard Feynman (1918 – 1988)

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Science, Medicine, & Education

Editor’s E-Mail Box: September 5, 2018 (9 items)

Paraguay reverses self; moves Embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv   The American Jewish Committee expressed deep disappointment over Paraguay’s decision to close its recently opened embassy in Jerusalem and return it to Tel Aviv. “This diplomatic reversal is shocking,” said Dina Siegel Vann, AJC Director of Latino and Latin American Affairs. “Paraguay has

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA